Dems ‘Must’ Keep Census Political — ‘Gerrymander and Gender-mander Away!’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Bonnie Erbe, a columnist and blogger for U.S.News and World Report, is keen to make sure that Democrats continue to cheat on re-districting as much as possible. She is insisting that Democrats not fall for a bi-partisan or a fair approach to re-districting and says that the Census should stay “politicized” because, after all, it’s Democrats in power now! So, as far as she is concerned, the Democrats should “gerrymander away” and absolutely demands that the Census should be politicized.

Erbe writes that she wants to “gender-mander” the Census for “feminist leaders” and wants to make sure that “hispanics and Latinos” aren’t “under-counted.” She claims the Census is “part of the spoils of victory” and wants her lefties to be able to wield that power. She says that the Democrats should “spare us the theatrics of trying to look nonpartisan.” So, the Dems should continue to cynically use the Census merely for partisan political purposes.

So much for the new tone in Washington, eh?

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Dems ‘Must’ Keep Census Political — ‘Gerrymander and Gender-mander Away!’”


Big Unions Angle to Eliminate Small Ones

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve talked about it several times here on the blog; the hostile takeover of smaller unions. It has been Andy Stern’s main modus operandi (President of the Service Employees International Union or SEIU). The idea is to roll into the territory of a local, smaller union, make back room deals with the employers to get their assistance, and then lead a forced take over of that smaller union eventually to vote it out of existence. Thereby the little unions that might stand in the way of the mega unions are eliminated and the mega unions now controlling everything from the top down get more even more massive.

It’s a perfectly legitimate strategy, of course… except for the fact that it makes the lie to every purported “principle” that unions claim to have. Local control becomes dashed and democracy summarily eliminate, yet local control and democratic process are the central themes of unionism. Without them they are little different than the supposedly evil corporate maters bent on domination that union claim their employers are. If a union member cannot feel that his local representatives are actually there for him then that impersonal attitude is no different than uncaring masters of industry.

Yet, this strong-arm takeovers of smaller unions is the current rage among big unions. And it is being noticed.

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Big Unions Angle to Eliminate Small Ones”


U.S. Leads World in Broadband Affordability per New ITU Data — Competition Works!

-By Scott Cleland

America’s longstanding bipartisan policy commitment to promote broadband competition has succeeded in making broadband more affordable in the U.S. than in any other country in the world according to the ITU.

Data in a broad new study by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) of 150 countries, show the U.S. leads the world by a substantial margin with the lowest broadband prices as a percentage of per capita GNI. (See the tables on pages 56 and 66.)

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U.S. Leads World in Broadband Affordability per New ITU Data — Competition Works!”


Is Libel Law Turning Against Us, New and Old Media Alike?

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is not a story of bias in the media. It is a story, rather, that affects both the Old Media of newspapers, TV and radio, as well as the New Media of the Internet. Our disagreements with the Old Media aside, we both stand to see trouble if a recent court case in Massachusetts gains momentum or is applied liberally henceforth.

The Associated Press reports on a libel case in Boston that pits a fired employee of the Staples office supply chain against his former employer. Staples, as it happens, sent out an emailed newsletter informing its employees that salesman Alan Noonan was fired for padding his expense account. Noonan sued for libel. Alarmingly, even though the emailed newsletter was reporting the strict truth the court held that truth was no defense in this case.

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Is Libel Law Turning Against Us, New and Old Media Alike?”


Dems to Take up Card Check on Tuesday

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Senate has secret elections for its leaders. The House of Representatives also uses a closed ballot, one not open to public view, for its own members. We all, you and I, have a secret ballot when we vote for president or for our local officials at our local polling place. It’s one of the oldest aspects of the democratic system.

Yet, Democrats want to take that oldest part of the democratic process away from 105 million Americans.

For their support in the last election Democrats are poised to launch an effort to force a payback to Big Unions through Congress, perhaps as early as Tuesday. That payback will be in the form of the woefully misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act” — which is neither free nor any choice. In this legislation, unions can dispense with the ages old secret ballot for union members and force them to sign public cards revealing their personal vote to everyone. Naturally, when a voter’s choice is known to everyone, pressure will be greater to conform and the conscience of the union member can easily take a back seat to that of getting along with union bosses.

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Dems to Take up Card Check on Tuesday”


Dear School Choice Advocates:

-By Israel Teitelbaum

Please call your Congressman and Senators (202-224-3121) and urge them to save the Washington, DC school vouchers.

While you have them on the phone, please urge them to sponsor the Civil Rights Act for Equal Educational Opportunity (CRA for EEO).

This will mandate equitable funding for children in nonpublic schools, while respecting the liberty of schools in hiring and provision of services. In accordance with the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, academic standards and means of funding would be left to the states.
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Dear School Choice Advocates:”


First Kill all the Lawyers… or at Least Put Them Out of Work

-By Warner Todd Huston

With apologies to the many fine folks at law that visit these pages, and those of my colleagues on the web that ply the law, today I am going to act the vulgar Shakespearian and advocate to “first kill all the lawyers.” Well, if not kill them exactly, then at least put many of them out of work — not that I am any expert on Shakespeare, he says to a chorus of “you betchas.” Still, the thought comes to mind because of a recent story in the Boston Globe that waxes pathetic over the many Bean Town lawyers that can’t find a job in this faltering economy.

The Globe piece starts out with a pity party for Boston lawyer Paul Semenza, a lawyer for 25 years that cannot find a job in his chosen profession. He now sells sofas and mattresses in a furniture outlet. And to that I say, good riddance to Paul… at least figuratively as Paul may be the nicest fellow in the world. But may he take several thousands more of his kind with him into exile. Let them get real jobs that are useful to his fellows at long last.

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First Kill all the Lawyers… or at Least Put Them Out of Work”


What Richard Cranium Came Up With THIS Program?

– By Warner Todd Huston

This year, the City of San Francisco is spending $122,575 in scarce budget dollars to grow the “Healthy Penis” campaign. No advocates of flaccid government, THIS city council, I gotta tell you! Only a good stiff effort will do.

So what is the “Healthy Penis” campaign? It’s a city wide effort to drive a stake in the heart of syphilis in the Bay Area, that’s what. Yes, Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to give the shaft to VD and he’s willing to screw the budget to get it done.

We all stand against a fowled phallus, of course, but is over $120,000 in these harsh economic times a cost worth pounding out of the budget? I mean, is this the sort of thing we should be yanking money out of City Hall for?
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What Richard Cranium Came Up With THIS Program?”


Recognizing the Reality of Radical Islam

-By Frank Salvato

Newsweek recently ran an article by Fareed Zakaria titled, Learning to Live with Radical Islam. In this article Mr. Zakaria contends that in our quest to prevail over the virulent factions within the fundamentalist Islamic culture we in the West must learn to discern the radical Islamist from the jihadi; the fundamentalist from the terrorist. Although Mr. Zakaria touches on a few noteworthy points – specifically the West’s need to engage in the war of ideas – his thesis that, “We can better pursue our values if we recognize the local and cultural context, and appreciate that people want to find their own balance between freedom and order, liberty and license,” ignores the fact that jihadis rule by force and that their “cultural context” and “license” is no less than totalitarian.

That the United States and the Western nations engaged in the violent struggle against radical Islamist aggression were delinquent in engaging in the war of ideas goes without saying. In reaction to the act of war perpetrated on the United States on September 11, 2001, our government reacted to secure the nation, to strike at the heart of the governments and terrorist organizations that executed the slaughter of 3,066 innocents at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, PA. This response was immediate for the simple fact that it was within our government’s purview; it was something that could be executed with an order.

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Recognizing the Reality of Radical Islam”


We Know What’s Best For You

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Democrat-Socialists are prepared to force everyone to do what their academic planners think will be best for the new one-world government.

Two current examples of Democrat-Socialist dirigisme are “green” energy and nationalized healthcare.

During the presidential campaign primaries, Hillary Clinton proposed to institute a national health insurance plan that would compel every person to subscribe to it. The same sort of program already exists in socialist Massachusetts (with catastrophically bad results, per the Kaiser and Harvard Medical School studies). Many elements of those plans are incorporated into the President’s budget proposal.
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We Know What’s Best For You”


SB600 – – LET PEOPLE DECIDE

-By Senator Chris Lauzen

Corruption, waste, and now an ill-advised, ill-timed 33% income tax increase during a deep and long recession on already struggling typical families have made Illinois a political laughingstock and butt of humor across the country. I have had enough – – I bet you have, too.

On this coming Tuesday at 1 P.M. in the Senate Elections Committee at the State Capitol in Springfield, a defining vote will take place. Nine senators will decide whether we will debate the question in front of the entire State Senate, “Should the power to vote for political party leadership be restored to Illinois Republicans?”

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SB600 – – LET PEOPLE DECIDE”


More ‘Gift Gaffes’

– By Warner Todd Huston

On top of the major faux pas in gifting promulgated by the Obamas during the visit of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown comes the story of the ridiculous mistake that Secretary of State Hillary “the linguist” Clinton made with her gift to Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov.

The “gift” was supposed to be a funny one, but it was a misfire because it seems that Clinton couldn’t find anyone in the employ of the State Department that had a grasp of the Russian language. The U.S. media has not made too big a deal about this one but the Russian and British media has been playing this one to the hilt. It’s being called the “Button Gaffe” and it certainly is making our Sec. of State look stupid to the world.

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More ‘Gift Gaffes’”


Obama’s British ‘Gift Gaffe’ Not Reported By U.S. Media

– By Warner Todd Huston

The Obamas, Barack and Michelle both, pretty much diplomatically botched the recent visit of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife. Oddly enough, the U.S. Old Media seems uninterested in the story that is a hot topic in England, a story that’s left many Brits a bit miffed.

As the visit of the national leader of our closest ally began, the President informed the Brits that he wouldn’t be attending the joint press conference that was planned to be held once PM Brown’s plane touched down. This threw the visiting delegation into a tizzy leaving them scrambling to explain the sudden change in plans to the folks back home. Still, meetings were had and things smoothed out. Eventually the visit seemed to right itself… then came the Obama’s gift gaffes.

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Obama’s British ‘Gift Gaffe’ Not Reported By U.S. Media”


If You Liked King George, You’ll Love Barack Obama

-By John Armor

I’ve spent the last few days at the Conservative Political Action Committee Annual Meeting. Saturday I was part of a panel discussion on New Media and Talk Radio. The main subject was various methods by which the Administration and certain Members of Congress seek to restrict free speech of certain public discussions. When preparing for that, I realized there are parallels between the beginnings of America and now.

And parallels between King George III and President Barack Obama.

The first person to use the phrase “The United States of America” was the same man who taught residents of the nations from Massachusetts down to North Carolina that they were all Americans. That was Thomas Paine. His book, Common Sense, sold about 500,000 copies in 1776. But that revolutionary text reached most people in verbal form.
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If You Liked King George, You’ll Love Barack Obama”


Globe Column: A Perfect Example of Lies About Rush

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe started off her column on March 6 with the exact same feeling about the current Obama/Limbaugh feud that I at first had: I wasn’t going to talk about it either. But after reading her column of distortions and outright lies about Limbaugh — as well as the ever present fat jokes and general incivility — I couldn’t resist analyzing her column. It is, as it occurs, the perfect example of the calumny that lefty writers heap on the radio talker. It also reveals their low born style of discourse and their general state of apoplexy at Limbaugh, if not the general level of insanity he instills in them.

Proving the direction she intended to take right off the top Goodman starts with a fat joke. She says she caught Limbaugh’s CPAC speech as she was on a flight. Goodman quips that he “filled — and I do mean filled — the screen” before her. Yes, one can sense the high caliber of analysis about to assault the eye when reading this first paragraph. Goodman is obviously an intellectual giant.

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Globe Column: A Perfect Example of Lies About Rush”


A Reminder of Liberal Hypocrisy

-By Warner Todd Huston

On March 6 Rush Limbaugh joked that the new healthcare bill being sponsored by the Democrats in Congress should be called the “Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill.” Limbaugh was obviously alluding to the fact that Kennedy is reportedly at death’s door.

It was a toss off joke, a dark one to be sure. Certainly, though, many have said worse of Teddy “the Swimmer” Kennedy.

Predictably the democratic Party ramped up the high dudgeon attacking Limbaugh for the off-color quip.

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A Reminder of Liberal Hypocrisy”


Harry Reid Proposes Power Grid Take Over By Feds

-By Warner Todd Huston

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) has just proposed that the federal government should take over the power grid in the country so that it might string power lines all across the land. At least that would be the outcome if his new proposal comes to fruition.

Reid wants created by federal fiat new “special power lines to carry renewable energy.” Further, he proposes that these “special power lines” be placed where the federal government says they should be placed. He says that to do this the Federal government would “be able override states” in the placement of these power lines.

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Harry Reid Proposes Power Grid Take Over By Feds”


A Proud Father Speaks

-By Tom Glennon

At 2:30 PM EST, Friday, February 23rd, my youngest son recited his reenlistment oath to serve his country for another four years. He was on duty at the time, but was relieved by a fellow Airman so that he could have the oath administered, and a few pictures taken. He then went back to his job, and finished his scheduled assignment.

When reciting this oath, he swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He swore to bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and obey the orders of the President and his appointed officers, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
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A Proud Father Speaks”


Obama’s Rush Quickens

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s been two days now since Rush Limbaugh first challenged President Obama to a duel of words, a debate on issues, and five since the president and his surrogates made Rush the main Democratic Party talking point. Of course, the White House is pretending to stand above such a request from a mere talk radio mouth — no response on the challenge has yet emerged. Yet, Obama’s Press Secretary, his Chief of Staff, and all the Old Media folks that his Chief of Staff instructs on a daily basis in that well known morning strategy session all have been using Rush Limbaugh as a main talking point since the Sunday morning following Rush’s CPAC speech.

Not only has Obama’s seconds come out swinging at Rush, but the whole of the lefty blogosphere has joined in on the taking points. Never the sort to do much self-generated thinking, the lefty gab-o-sphere has with relish taken up the banner and run with it. Naturally, the tenor of discussion has fallen off a cliff into the typical guttural guffaws and epithets at which the left excels. From a purported “Assistant Professor in the Practice of International Politics at Columbia University” on Huffington Post to the DailyKossacks, the name calling is piling up.

With his attack on Rush Limbaugh, however, Obama risks a backlash that just might hit him where it hurts: his own credibility.

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Obama’s Rush Quickens”


Why Do You All Keep Saying Obama Killed Reagan?

-By Warner Todd Huston

The pundits and talking heads have settled on a sensational meme: Obama killed Reagan. To the Old Media and the pundit class, it’s got all the requisite characteristics of a great story. New beating old, liberal trumping conservative, it has power, pathos and amazement. But, it is also pure hyperbole and, well, a load of horse puckey.

Before I get too much further along here, it would be silly of me to claim that it could never happen that Obama will supplant Reagan as the miracle worker of the Oval Office. We have but to look at the long-term success of Franklin Roosevelt’s turning of America from a capitalist republic to a democratic socialist system to see that it is entirely possible that Obama’s next four years (or 16 if we’re talking FDR redux) could “re-make” the country once again. Not that what FDR did was a good thing, mind you, but it cannot be denied that it was a political success and was entirely transformative.

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Why Do You All Keep Saying Obama Killed Reagan?”


TelePrompter Story Shows Another Way Old Media Covers for Obama

-By Warner Todd Huston

Carol E. Lee of Politico had a short March 5 piece about President Obama’s singular inability to give a speech, even short ones, without the crutch of a TelePrompter in front of him to prod him about what to say next. This isn’t the only time the media has raised its eyebrow about the president’s TelePrompters (I even covered it myself not long ago), so the story isn’t a new one, but one little thing that Lee wrote reveals how the media goes out of its way to help Obama’s image by keeping the devices out of Obama’s photography.

His use of the teleprompter makes work tricky for the television crews and photographers trying to capture an image of the president announcing a new Cabinet secretary or housing plan without a pane of glass blocking his face.

In other words, the Old Media puts in a herculean effort to make sure The One still looks like he is speaking extemporaneously by working overtime to make sure those speech prompters are NOT in the picture.

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TelePrompter Story Shows Another Way Old Media Covers for Obama”


Union Opposes Rail Safety Suggestion, Instead Offers to Enlarge Membership

-By Warner Todd Huston

The United Transportation Union is coming out against a rail safety measure suggestion because, the union claims, the idea violates the “privacy” of union employees. Instead of agreeing to the safety measure, however, the union used a recent accident that killed 25 train passengers as an excuse to try and force companies to double the number of train operators, thereby enlarging union membership.

Put succinctly, while the government and rail companies are looking for ways to improve safety and prevent future loss of lives, the union is trying to make more money and gain more members.

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Union Opposes Rail Safety Suggestion, Instead Offers to Enlarge Membership”


An Alternative to Impending Doom

-By Nancy Salvato

In the time that has passed since President Obama was elected to and now holds the presidency of the United States, there has been something of an ominous and disturbing feel accompanying the media’s portrayal of his administration. It brings to mind news coverage of third world countries taken over by a military coup or overrun by a junta or dictatorship whose next move is to nationalize their industries or indiscriminately ravage the countryside. There is a one-step removed air about the reporting that belies the gravity of what is being discussed and makes each event surreal. There is a resigned quality to the words and to what is happening to our way of life. Have we forgotten that we live under a Constitution that provides “We the People” the power to “peacefully overthrow” those who are elected to hold office? We even have the power to “non-peacefully overthrow” those elected to power, but we’ve never had to use this recourse.

“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty…And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
– Thomas Jefferson
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An Alternative to Impending Doom”


Union Execs Meet at Swanky Resort Hotel

-By Warner Todd Huston

As union members lose their jobs all across the country, the AFL-CIO executive council met at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach, Florida this week.

The union bigwigs met at the Fontainebleau where the cheapest room rings up at $400 dollars a night.

Were I a union member, I might take exception to such extravagance for union bosses. Especially in an economy like this.

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Union Execs Meet at Swanky Resort Hotel”


Coming To a Craft Store Near You: Barack As Jesus

Our Obama Journey May Obama be Our Shepherd

Yes, be the first on your block to have this professionally framed fine art depiction of Barack Obama as Jesus Christ*, shepherd’s staff in hand and lamb in arms. Accompanying this high quality art piece is a wonderful message of uplift about “The Journey” to Obamahood we all share.

You’ll be proud as your friends and family see this wonderful piece of art adorning your walls and they too will want to believe that YES WE CAN sell them one of their very own.

And if you act now, we will send you an Obama prayer cloth made from underwear that The One himself once wore so generously donated to YOU, his flock. These segments of prayer cloth are soft as a baby’s bottom and you will be comforted by the fact that it once sat close to our savior. You can just feel the power of this prayer cloth emanating like rays of sunshine. Hold it as you pray, rub it on your cheek and know that blessings will be showered upon you by He that satteth in them who is now he that sitteth in the seat of power at long last. Praise HIM and may he be a lamp unto our feet… but one that is eco friendly.

And that’s not all: along with your high quality Obama iconography and prayer cloth, you’ll get a four leaf Obama naturally grown in a herbal garden in California along with a lucky Obama’s foot from creatures that willingly gave their lives for HIM so that YOU can can receive good luck.

Hurry, all this has been designed with YOU in mind but this is an emergency and we must ACT NOW! So ACT NOW before it’s TOO LATE!!! These O-products are sure to help YOU sit in rapt attention during Obama press conferences and YOU also will find serene patience bestowed upon YOU as YOU await HIS next email kindly informing YOU of the daily word HE wishes to enlighten YOU with.

ORDER NOW!

*Any allusions to past or lesser religious figures is purely coincidental. Besides, they never existed anyway, so spare us your extreme “religious” outrage.

—-

Note: This wall hanging was a real product for sale recently in a California craft store.

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Coming To a Craft Store Near You: Barack As Jesus”


Professor Calls Police on Student Supporter of 2nd Amendment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The assignment for Central Connecticut State University student John Walberg and his two classmates was to give an oral presentation on a “relevant issue in the media.” The three chose school violence for their topic.

After the oral presentation was over, professor Paula Anderson of Communication 140, promptly filed a complaint with the CCSU Police against student Wahlberg claiming he made students “scared and uncomfortable.” Professor Anderson deemed Wahlberg a “perceived risk” and felt it was her duty to “protect” her class.

What did the young man say in his oral assignment that was so threatening? Shockingly, Wahlberg had the temerity to discuss concealed carry laws, guns on campus in the hands of law abiding students, and the problems with the concept of a “gun free zone.” He was gauche enough to have posited that if students and/or professors had legal guns on their persons in 2007 the death toll in the Virginia Tech shooting spree could have been much lower.

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Professor Calls Police on Student Supporter of 2nd Amendment”


Politico: ‘How the Press Sucks up to White House’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Want to know the sordid details of how the press sucks up to staffers at the White House? According to Politico’s Michael Calderone it is via a “beat sweetener” article, a concept well known in Old Media circles. A “beat sweetener” is an article meant to flatter a White House staffer so that said reporter might find easier access to the inside stuff later on.

Calderone’s piece is an interesting glimpse into the world of Washington political reporters and it isn’t one that builds much confidence among us, the readers. Perhaps, like a magician revealing his tricks, Calderone might find a few of his colleagues being a bit miffed at the spotlight he shines on this less than edifying practice.

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Politico: ‘How the Press Sucks up to White House’”


UPDATE on Unions a Hatin’ Unions

-By Warner Todd Huston

On February 25, we noted a story by Ben Smith of Politico about the newest troubles in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and its President Andy Stern. Stern is attempting yet another hostile take over of yet another union in his attempt to gain iron-fisted rule of all unions in the country — no less than that is his ultimate goal.

It looks like Politico has another note in that battle.

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UPDATE on Unions a Hatin’ Unions”


Flight 93 Update

Columnist Ralph Couey emails a clarification

Alec Rawls sends this update to last week’s post on the Flight 93 memorial, where columnist Ralph Couey was said to have described Tom Burnett Sr.’s objections to the crescent design as “hopeless intransigence.”

UPDATE: Columnist Ralph Couey emails a clarification

Mr. Couey insists that his reference to “hopeless intransigence” was not directed at Mr. Burnett’s opposition to the crescent design but “dealt solely with the parties involved in the land purchase.”

I’ll take his word for that. The way he sandwiched his mention of Mr. Burnett’s protest in between his comments about the land deal certainly made it look like he was drawing a parallel, which is how I interpreted him, but there have been plenty of times when my own writings have been open to readings that I did not intend. These things happen. Here is the relevant part of Mr. Couey’s column:
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Flight 93 Update”